The strange and brilliant starry sky in Van Gao's pen, like the smart and bright collage in Matisse's hand... The paintings of a group of autistic children in Wuhan can't help but marvel again and again. Many of them were painted by Chen Kui, an art teacher at Peizhi Central School in Wuchang District, Wuhan, accompanied by the children.
Chen Kui, 53 years old, her parents are teachers, grew up on campus, she also likes to deal with children. After graduating from Jianghan University in 1994 with a major in Arts and Crafts, she also became a teacher. Today, together with two colleagues, she teaches art classes at this special children's education school.
Autism is a lifelong disease that cannot be prevented or completely cured. Some say that autistic children live in a world we know nothing about. What is the world like? Children cannot express their inner feelings in words. What Chen Kui and her colleagues did was to take them to play and release in color.
Chen Kui, an art teacher at Wuchang Peizhi Central School.
"From knowing nothing, to knowing the various lines, patterns, colors, to consciously picking these colors to express the feelings in their hearts, it is a long process, and they are telling us about their growth." 2 April 2022 is the 15th World Autism Day. Teacher Chen Kui selected 5 paintings to tell the children behind these paintings and their stories.
One day, these children will have to get out of school and integrate into society. "I look forward to more people being able to get closer to the hearts of autistic children through these paintings, read them, give them a gentler and friendlier world together, and let them enjoy the sunshine of life." Chen Kui said.
After the painting, he was very happy
This is the work of Xiaoyu (pseudonym) in the fourth grade.
When Xiaoyu entered the first grade, he was a beautiful little boy with a high nose and double eyelids. As he grew older, his symptoms became more severe, but his drawings were very good. He knows how to color, how to match colors.
From the first grade, I took him to draw. When he paints, sometimes he loves to be in a daze, sometimes you call him, he can't seem to hear.
People say that children with autism are children from the stars. We usually observe their kind of self-closure, as if they are protecting themselves in a bottle, but they are very lonely inside.
We want to use this picture to tell you that autistic children are such a state: other people can't get in, and he can't get out.
When painting, Xiaoyu came to draw the line and color, he painted the color very well, and the hook line was also very beautifully hooked. After the painting, he was very happy.
As an artist, I am more sensitive to color nature. I found that children with autism seem to have a characteristic, they like to use dark colors when drawing. Sometimes you put other colors together and he just picks the black, blue, gray, dark coffee.
I still don't understand whether I think this can be studied as a case study.
I've also spoken to other teachers, could it be that they wrapped themselves up in this dark color and looked for a sense of security? Is something too bright that makes them feel irritating and dangerous? They may have their thoughts.
Children of the same age, mostly like bright colors, I don't know what they think, why choose such colors, sometimes I even want to drill into their minds to see, what is seeing in his eyes? Is the red he sees red? Is gray really gray?
It's hard to walk into the hearts of autistic children, but I still want to be close to them, to hope that their sky is colorful. We and our parents are in the same mood, hoping that one day the development of science will help us understand them, solve these mysteries, and enable them to return to normal life.
The picture resembles Van Gogh's "Starry Moon Night"
This is the work of Tao Tao (pseudonym) of the sixth grade. Tao Tao is tall and big, he is very good at sports, and his study habits are also very good.
These kids need inspiration when it comes to drawing, and if you let him start on his own, he may not be able to get started.
When I was tutoring him that day, I asked him, "Tao Tao, what do you think in your heart?" He smiled and didn't make a sound.
I took out a box of oil pastel pens, and I asked, "Silently, what color do you like about these pens?" He smiled and pulled the brush away, meaning that he liked it all, and I said, "Then you can paint whatever you want?" ”
He drew on his own paper. After a while, I noticed that he had drawn some circles, and I asked "Why are you painting this?", and he smiled and said, "This looks good, like water." I was very surprised, and said in a loud voice: "This idea is good, this is not like water flowing, like the wind is blowing?" He said like.
The painting is very colorful, and the colors were chosen by him. They can paint big, abstract things, but if they paint small, fine things, they will be a little worse. I held his hand, "This circle can't go out, how fun it is to be in it!" ”
In this way, the work was slowly completed in two lessons. People who have seen this painting are amazed, like Van Gogh's "Starry Moon Night", but more abstract. These circles seem to tell the story of the silent confinement and wrapping that autism brings to children. But despite these confines and wrappings, their hearts are also colorful.
Their hearts are not as dim and unchanging as others say, their anger and smiles prove that they also have all kinds of emotions, and seeing different things can also touch their hearts, but those small things are difficult for us to catch.
Whenever I have time, I will observe them and capture these seemingly impermanent small changes in them.
As teachers, what we can see in school are some fragments, parents may have more opportunities to observe and experience the details of life, I hope that we can combine these captured content, communicate with each other, and maybe give them more help.
After the painting was finished and the whole effect was presented, Tao Tao was also very happy.
"You see that the colors are so bright, the lines are so natural and smooth, like a flowing whirlpool, is it not the thoughts that flow like this in your mind?" At that moment, I saw him laughing, his words could not express it, but his smile represented everything.
Painted like spring in Wuhan
The work of Xiao Ying (pseudonym) in the eighth grade. This is a colored cardboard collage.
Xiaoying transferred from an ordinary primary school. When she first came to our school, she always kept her head down and didn't like to talk. Given her a relaxed environment, she slowly became cheerful and confident. She usually likes to draw, and she performs very well in the class, and her mind is delicate.
When I was painting, I asked her, "Xiaoying, what season are we in now?" She said it was spring.
"What do you see in the spring?" "I saw the trees, I saw the flowers."
"So let's draw spring on this piece of paper, shall we?" She nodded happily in agreement.
When I drew this picture, there was also a small episode. Usually we go to drawing class, most of them will use white paper as the base, I have taught children, on white drawing paper, you can use light blue to draw clouds. But this time, the base color is a light blue paper. Originally, we planned to draw white clouds with a white brush. Turning her head, she herself chose a dark blue brush to draw clouds.
I immediately praised her because she knew how to express the clouds in her heart with a change in depth. She is creating, she is enjoying the painting itself. She has her own ideas.
Seeing this painting, we are like seeing the spring in Wuhan, cherry blossoms, green trees, colorful.
I praised her for the atmosphere of the picture, a few trees appear clean and neat, and the overall sense is very strong.
In life, I also hope that she is an atmospheric girl. I hope that she will go out from school in the future and be able to face and adapt to society like this painting, with an atmosphere, independence, sunshine, and cheerfulness.
I hope that she can be like this special "cloud", changing according to changes and completing the "works" of her life.
Feel joy in the things you love
The author of the painting is Qingqing (pseudonym), who is now in the fourth grade.
Qingqing's symptoms are more obvious. Sometimes when the class was good, he would suddenly get up and walk around. As soon as the teacher called his name reminded him that he would return to his place and sit down. But after a while, he might get up again and walk around. The teacher reminded him again.
There was a big screen in front of our school classroom, and on the day I drew, I showed the images of the ice piers to the children. "Isn't the ice pier cute?" Do you like it or not? "The kids were happy and loved the ice piers.
Qingqing is a very cute little boy. Like other children, he also likes the cute ice piers and the cute image of the panda.
In this painting, the shape of the ice pier was created by the teacher to guide him, and the colored circles on the face of the ice pier were independently colored by himself. "Celebration is awesome!" Everyone encouraged him.
When he painted this picture, the state was enjoyable, he knew that the teacher was paying attention to him, and he felt joy in the things he liked.
Desire to fit into normal children
The author of this painting, Xiao Yu (pseudonym), is in the fifth grade this year and is a small, somewhat timid little boy.
If a task is assigned in the class and the other child starts to move, he will sit still and look at the teacher with his eyes.
"Light rain, you blend in!" He would still look at you until you picked up the paintbrush and told him, "You painted this place," and he started painting.
Light Rain was completely immersed in her own world. His mother said that he hid behind when he saw people since he was a child, and his mother wanted him to communicate with other people, deliberately taking him to crowded places, and he would hold his mother's hand tightly.
His mother was a teacher at our school. Before painting this picture, I discussed with his mother, in view of Xiaoyu's situation, then we will create a story of a star child who integrates into the crowd on earth. His mother said yes. It is everyone's desire to integrate them into normal children.
The theme of the picture was fixed, Xiaoyu and his mother participated together, blending into the line, coloring, and the green space and blue ocean on the earth were all painted by him.
In the picture, the happy somersault is Xiaoyu. We all hope that Xiaoyu can change his timidity, be lively, release his nature, and integrate into the crowd.
(Yangtze River Daily reporter Xia Qiong correspondent Yang Shiqi)
【Editor: Zheng Xiaoxiao】
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